Last month my mom came for a quick visit, bringing with her two blank canvases, a throw pillow and a paint chip. She then tasked me with creating some “art” to hang in her newly refreshed guest room. In the way of guidance, all I had to go off of was this pillow and paint chip. I haven’t even been in the room since it was redone.

I first decided to try some string art, which would read “Rest Easy.” I have been wanting to try string art, I thought the planned statement was appropriate for a guest room, and I liked that it was gender neutral art. I painted my canvases and got to work.
And then I failed. Miserably.
First off, and as I suspected, you can’t really do string art on a canvas. The material is too thin. You really need to do this on wood, using nails.
I tried using push pins and stabilizing them with ticky tack on the back, but it didn’t work. Once I got the string on, the push pins started wobbling and pulling all over the place. Also, it was pretty much impossible to remove the printed letters from underneath the push pins without disturbing them and messing the whole thing up.

I abandoned this idea after one letter.
My canvas was now full of tiny holes forming the outline of the letter “T.” Great!
Luckily they were easily filled with some more acrylic paint. No big deal.
Back at square one, I then decided to go the trusty scrapbook paper and Mod Podge route. (How many times have you seen this picture on Pinterest?!?)
Pulling from the colors and design elements within the throw pillow (note the simple leaf pattern along the border and the clover pattern in the center), I made some shape templates and cut scrapbook paper accordingly. I then played around with layouts, painted some gold lines on my canvas, and Mod Podged the heck out of my scrapbook paper shapes.
Okay, mom, are you ready to see your new art? Drumroll please . . .

A closeup of the “leaf” art (which, upon further reflection, reminds me of Orla Kiely’s famous pattern!)

And now, the “clover” art.

Mom, I really hope you like your completed canvases. I also really hope that if you don’t, you won’t write me a comment about not liking them. Instead, please pretend that you like them, “Pin It,” and then either hang them up just when I come visit or tell me that you think they look better in my house and that I should keep them.
If you need some “art” for your home, give the scrapbook paper and Mod Podge canvas a try. Super easy, inexpensive and fun!
p.s. follow me on Pinterest and Twitter, where you just might get some other DIY ideas from me! I’ll follow you back.

My brother and his girlfriend (whom I adore, by the way), just moved to a new state where they have no family (and I’m guessing no friends) whatsoever. New apartment, new city, new life.
I tried hard to think of a gift to welcome them to their new home that would be practical but sentimental at the same time, and the lyrics to the Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros’ song, Home, kept coming to mind. Such a great song. . .
I first thought about framing the lyrics, but then I wasn’t sure if they could hang things on the walls, what their color scheme was like, etc. So instead, I decided to sew up a simple envelope back pillowcase in a linen blend fabric, and put some of the lyrics right on the pillowcase with a Sharpie and some stencils!

Although I’m not totally in love with the letter stencils I used here, I think the idea is a good one and I will probably try this again with different stencils.
If you want to make a similar pillow, get a pillowcase, Sharpie, tape, stencils and a ruler/level.
Then, tape out where you want your text to be.

And get to work stenciling!

It doesn’t get much simpler than that, does it?
What do you think of my Sharpie pillow? I love hearing from you, so let me know!

When I was a young child, my mom made me the most beautiful Halloween costumes. I can’t imagine how much time she must have spent crafting my princess angel costume or my flower costume – both of which won me the “best costume” award at our annual neighborhood Halloween party (it was either her wonderful creativity and attention to detail that won me those awards or the fact that my dad was the neighborhood association president . . . I think it was all her.).
I probably won’t ever make my kids’ costumes because I’m not as skilled on the sewing machine as my mom, but I did have fun making them their trick or treating bags this year. I liked the idea of making their candy carriers because they can use them more than once.
Here’s what I came up with for my daughter.

She was so excited when she saw it, which made my time spent on it totally worthwhile.
It was actually really simple to make, and the only big problem I ran into was when I managed to sew the front and the back of the tote bag together. Awesome, but nothing my super-sharp seam ripper couldn’t fix in a minute. I also made my bottom ruffle a bit too short, but it’s not that big of a deal. It will be dark outside when she’s trick or treating anyway.
If you want to make a similar ruffle tote, you’ll need the following supplies:

A canvas tote (I purchased mine at Michaels for $3.99)

Fabric

Thread

Iron

Sewing Machine

Ribbon

Hot Glue Gun

Heat ‘N Bond Ultra (if you want to make a no-sew monogram or other design)

Puffy Paint (or “dimensional fabric paint,” as they call it these days)

Then, here’s what you do:

1. Cut your fabric strips to your desired length and width. For a 12.5″ wide tote, I cut three strips to be 22″ wide and 4″ high.

2. Next, fold your strips in half and iron them so that you have a crisp fold.

3. Sew a basting stitch near the open top of your folded strips.
4. Gently pull your basting thread to ruffle your fabric strips. Pin your bottom ruffle to your tote. (Note that I drew pinning lines on my bag with a tailor pencil to ensure that I pinned them straight.) Sew that bottom ruffle to the tote bag.

5. Repeat step 4 with your middle ruffle, and then your top ruffle.
6. Hot glue some ribbon to the top of your top ruffle to hide your raw edge. I’d suggest getting a 1″ thick ribbon (at least). Mine is too narrow and some of the raw threads are sticking through the top. I will have to trim those with manicure scissors.

7. If you want to add a monogram or some other type of design, you can use Heat ‘N Bond Ultra to create an iron-on monogram like I did.
Easy and cute! You can’t go wrong.
Now I wish I had some Halloween candy!

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In my quest to become organized, I decided that my house needed a “command station” of sorts – a place where all of the important papers and notes would be in my line of sight (so I won’t lose track of them), and somewhat contained so as to avoid clutter on my countertops.

I found a great fabric-covered cork board at HomeGoods for a nice price (less than it would have cost me to DIY one), and I put an Avery Peel and Stick Dry Erase Sheet* over the glass on an old picture frame to create a dry erase board. The only other thing I wanted to add was a wall hanging organizer, which would accommodate bulkier papers and items that couldn’t be placed on the cork board. I had a mesh one similar to this* in mind, but I really didn’t want to spend any more money on this project.

Inspiration hit as I was hauling yet another empty jumbo pack of diapers to the recycling bin – use a diaper box to DIY a fabric wall organizer! Crazy, right?

While planting my fall container gardens the other day, I noticed that the cute welcome mat at my front door was much too “springy” for this time of year.

I immediately added a new welcome mat to my Target list, and then realized that if I came home with yet another mat, my husband would freak. He would not share my belief that pink and yellow flowers are inappropriate feet greeters for this time of year. So, I flipped my mat over and was happy to find that it was in perfect condition on the other side, though it was rather plain.

I thought about leaving it like that, but then had a better idea . . . turn it into a spray painted welcome mat!
I purchased some spray paint suitable for fabric and got to work taping off a herringbone pattern, using my recent HGTV Magazine article on patterns as a visual guide.

Once the paint dried, I held my breath and removed the tape. I couldn’t be happier with the result!

The best part is I didn’t tell my husband about this experiment. I put out our “new” mat for the first time yesterday, and when he came in the door he said, “why did you buy that mat? What was wrong with the other one?” He was so happy when I told him I painted it, and he really likes this one!

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Hi, I'm Bre! Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you'll find ideas to inspire your creativity and beautify your home. If this is your first visit, check out the Popular Posts tab at the top of the page to see some of the best of Average But Inspired!

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